Friday, February 8, 2013

Leftover O's?

Happy Friday! I wanted to share a short and sweet phonics activity with you that is always a big hit in my classroom. It just so happens that our 100th day of school falls right around the time we focus on short o. This is perfect for the mounds of un-strung cereal that didn't make it onto a 100th day necklace. {Anyone else always seem to overbuy?}

We brainstorm as many short o words as we can come up with together and then take turns recording them onto chart paper. This doubles as practice for word families and rhyming words too! Then, I provide my kids with a cotton swab and a small cup of glue as well as a handful of leftover "o" cereal. They get to work making their own lists of short o words, glueing cereal in place of each letter o.

Fun and simple. Of course, you can always pull patterns into it, or long o vs. short o. I leave this activity open-ended and my kids usually decide to take it to the next level on their own. I love watching their little brains in action. :)

Mary: I just found your blog. I'm always looking for new ideas for short and long vowel sounds, and this one is really creative! Thank you! If you're interested, I just put up a whole bunch of freebies about cupcakes (addition, guided reading book, sight words, etc.) on my blog. Please drop by if you have a second! :)